AI is ever growing in the academic headspace. However, that is far from the only way AI is used and can be used. Though in many ways, AI is theft and should be treated like it.
Generative AI is a familiar sight on social media, whether in the form of dancing cats with four tails or completely fabricated stories made from 10-word descriptions. First of all, this type of creation is caused by and only by the AI. While someone can put in a few words, it is nothing in comparison to true creativity and initiative to make something. The biggest argument for generative AI is that it makes art accessible, when in reality, it only makes real art more valuable. There is no reason for anyone not to pick up a pencil and learn how to draw, crochet or write, no matter how hard it is to start or time restrictions. A hobby is a hobby, and they all start somewhere. They can’t start with AI.
Not to mention, many social media platforms take content posted on them without creators knowing or having a way to opt out of it. Generative AI, especially, is a fraud, in which it takes other people’s content and makes it into its own, where generators then claim they made something when, in reality, a coded feature stole 10 other people’s hard work. It is not reasonable for someone to spend 20+ hours on a painting only for it to be used by AI to “create” someone’s prompt. Many times, the AI resembles the media it took from in a broken way.
However, AI can be used for good. For example, it is often used in the realm of analysis, where pre-recorded stats can then be put into a calculated AI. This is good because not only does it help whatever statistical analysis is being created, but the people using it have to do their fair share as well, meaning the AI is as much a tool as a wrench or a screwdriver. The problem then lies in over-reliance, when people stop doing their work and instead opt for asking AI.
A good guideline for assessing AI is applying a trained raccoon to questionable scenarios. For example, would you want a trained raccoon to grade papers and evaluate your tests, or even sift through job applications? Or instead, introduce one into the medical field and use it to sniff out abnormalities, of which it is strangely good at. What are good things to let a raccoon help with, and what should humans use their own cognitive thought for? In other words, AI is good when it is being used and regulated by human beings. When it is being abused as a way of lazily getting by, then reliance forms and that only restrains any and all real thought. Using AI is the technological equivalent of seeking help from other people in every crevice of life, no matter if you could figure it out yourself or, dare I say, problem solve.
